Whether you love or hate Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, all any royalist can currently talk about is the Netflix documentary series, Harry & Meghan.
And ahead of Volume II’s release, eagle-eyed fans have noticed a hidden detail concerning the late Queen Elizabeth II in Volume I of Harry & Meghan.
WATCH: The Harry & Meghan Volume II trailer
An image of Harry and Meghan laughing and drinking from a royal tea-set appears in the series and in this particular image, the Duke and Duchess are seemingly sitting in ‘Welsh Cottage’, located in the gardens of the Royal Windsor Lodge.
The Welsh Cottage (also known as ‘Y Bwthyn Bach’ and ‘The Little House’) was given to Queen Elizabeth by the people of Wales in 1932 for her sixth birthday.
Both Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret regularly played in the miniature cottage – which has electric lighting, running water and a working phone – as children.
Royal watcher Kylie Walters believes this photo of Harry and Meghan drinking tea inside Welsh Cottage was taken during Lilibet’s birthday party.
“Prince Harry and Meghan held their daughter Lilibet’s first birthday party in the grounds at Windsor while they were visiting England in June for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations. It’s likely that the Queen gave them permission to use the playhouse for the milestone occasion, and the snap is from that day . It is the perfect venue to host a child’s party and the Queen would want to share her special place with Archie and Lili, who are rarely in the UK,” Kylie said.
However, despite it being from a momentous, obviously happy occasion, this picture has sparked controversy.
This is because under royal protocol, permission is needed to film and take photos in Windsor Castle and on the private grounds of Windsor Great Park (where Welsh Cottage is located) and Kylie says it’s likely that Harry and Meghan didn’t have permission for this photo to be shared globally through Netflix.
“While Meghan and Harry would have used the property with the Queen’s blessing, it would have been understood that this was a private event and it wouldn’t have expected that the Sussexes would use the day for profit.”
“Earlier in the trip, the Queen had put a stop to the couple taking professional images of her meeting their daughter for the first time, after reports surfaced that they hoped to use it in their Netflix series. The expectation would be that the pair would only share images from the party they had taken among close friends and family members. The Queen was the boss of The Firm and her word was law. Releasing the snap is a slap in the face to her generous gesture,” Kylie said.
“The image was shared with the public when Harry and Meghan opened up their private photo albums as part of their docuseries with Netflix… Given that the Royal Family deny they were given ample opportunity to respond to the series, it seems unlikely that the Sussexes would have asked for permission to share the photo either.”
In the latest Harry & Meghan trailer which promotes the upcoming Volume II, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex discuss leaving the royal family because of “institutional gaslighting”.
Meghan then says: “I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves. I was being fed to the wolves.”
Volume II (episodes 4-6) of Harry & Meghan will be released on December 15. Volume I is currently available on Netflix.
